These language switches are killing me. Just when you figure out the essentials in a new country like "no/yes, how much, where is the toilet, don't touch me there" etc etc, you're off to a new country and you have to start all over again! Luckily I already have the Spanish essentials mastered from my month in Central America, so I had a jump on Spain. I landed in Barcelona from Athens and quickly jumped on a train headed for Valencia. Why didn't I just stay in Barcelona you ask? Great question....very astute of you. However I was headed to Valencia to attend a festival that I've looked forward to since booking the trip. None other...then La Tomantina!!! For people unfamiliar with La Tomantina, this random YouTube clip sums it up nicely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzWWhqL0ruY&NR=1
Essentially thousands of people crowd the streets of Buñol (near Valencia) and wait for dump-trucks of tomatoes to be dropped at their feet, and then they throw them at eachother. If you're shaking your head right now asking why would someone volunteer for this....you don't know me too well! It was awesome!!! However it was also one of the times that I cursed being taller them most people, as my head/face/mouth made for an excellent target. The entire time you're half squinting (tomato juice in the eyes burns FYI) half laughing, and half yelling. You nail some guy in the back of the head in front of you, and then turn around to ask your buddy "dude did you see nail that guy?" as you're yelling that he smashes a tomato in your face! It's an all out war! The whole things lasts a few hours, and then you're tasked with trying to find a local to hose you off with water to get the excess tomato off! At this point it's baking in your hair from the sun, and starting to smell pretty bad...so you're glad to rinse it off. *Tip for girls, shave your head before attending....smashed tomato in long, thick hair just isn't cool so I'm told*.
The night before La Tomantina I attended the Water and Wine festival (part of the La Tomantina festivities) in a small town called Requena. It's essentially the kick off of the new wine harvesting season (officially kicked off by the Mayor). You parade down the narrow streets, drink the locals wine (who pour it out from large vats that they have in the back of trucks) and get doused by water thrown from balconies. Awesome. This went on until about 5am when we took a bus back into Valencia for 6am, and was promptly woken up at 7am to get on another bus bound for La Tomantina. All and all an awesome few days to kick off Spain!
Other then the madness that is La Tomantina, I didn't do much else in Valencia except recover on the beach. A buddy of mine took some pics of the festivities that hopefully he'll send over soon and I'll upload to the blog.
From Valencia I headed north to the beautiful city of Barcelona!
There’s something about Barcelona that screams appeal. It’s a bustling city of over a million
people, yet it maintains a clean, sophisticated and sexy image. From the tapas and wine on the harbour to the
Gaudi architecture, and bustling nightlife of La Ramblas I couldn’t get enough
of this city.
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| Columbus statue at the southern end of La Ramblas |
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| “You know Fred if you hold your face like that it’ll get stuck...” |
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| W hotel in the background |
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| Some bird |
I spent an afternoon on top of Montjuic mountain enjoying the views
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| On top there is Montjuic castle |
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| "The Pigeon" |
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| "Use caution when break dancing" |
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| La Sagrada Familia |
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| Tour Agbar -142m tall skyscraper covered in 60,000 pieces of coloured glass |
One of the highlights of Barcelona was a visit to Gaudi’s La
Sagrada Familia. Gaudi died before
finishing it (ran over by a tram).
They’ve been trying to finish it since his death in the 20's but due to its’
extremely unique and complex design apparently it won’t be finished until 2030
(I’m not kidding). This thing was right
out of a fairytale...Alice and Wonderland meets Willy Wonka
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| Fruit bowls on top of the spires....ya sure why not |
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| My friend Hanna giving the turtle some lovin' |
Inside was just as impressive
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| The pillars were designed to resemble trees in a forest |
Awesome city, I had an unforgettable time there ;)
After Barcelona I headed west along the French border to San
Sebastian which is a nice little surfer town on the Bay of Biscay. Now San Seb is in an area of Spain called
Basque, and to my delight they had their own unique version of tapas called pintxos. I would describe them as tapas to the extreme
(including an extreme price L). One example had crisp bread as a base, with
an egg, anchovies, onion and a rich sauce drizzled over the entire thing....so
good. Yet each bite sized delight was
between $1-2 euro’s so they add up quick.
I love the concept though as you essentially have all the types of tapas
out on display and you help yourself and keep your plates on each round, so you
know how much you’ve eaten. It’s the
honour system at its’ finest!
Anyways like I said, it's a small surfer town so I decided just to kick it for a few days and not do a whole lot. But I did manage to venture out and grab some pics.
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| Surfer's beach |
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| As you can see, a very popular surfer's beach |
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| JC watching over the town |
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| Swimming beach on other side of town - awesome biking/jogging trails |
A great little town with delicious food and awesome beaches. After San Seb I decided to cut through the centre of Spain heading south to Granada, but not before stopping off in Madrid for a few days. Madrid was nice, but it felt like another capital city with not a whole lot to offer. It did have some solid shopping and a decent nightlife though but I was looking past Madrid and onto Granada.
I decided to make Granada my last city to see in Spain, as
I’ve heard nothing but good things about it.
It has the Alhambra, a Moorish castle which overlooks the main part of this
small city. Also there is a strong Moroccan
influence here, which is evident in the spice shops and shishah bars. And you have gypsy’s living in hill side
caves! Quite the fun city to say the
least.
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| The Alhambra seen from below, my hostel was just up the street! Great location |
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| Beautiful outdoor cafe culture here....tapas baby tapas |
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| The Alhambra from a view point |
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| Some of El Niño de las Pinturas' famous graffiti that is a popular tour in Granada |
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| Spice shop...smelled amazing |
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| Mom and dad they had a tea to cure everything, you guys would have loved this place |
The gypsy caves were fascinating; essentially anybody can
come and dig out a cave in the side of these mountain ranges and call it home,
and since it’s on protected land, it's tax free! Unfortunately because most of these people
lack the skills to safely build a cave, there are often cave-ins and deaths.
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| Typical front yard for one of the caves |
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| Gypsy land....you can see where some of the caves have collapsed |
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| The caves might be small, but the view makes up for it! |
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| Granada from uptop Gypsy hill |
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| The Alhambra at night |
Ah the Alhambra, what a marvel of Moorish and Christian architecture. First built by Moorish rulers in the 1400's, it was later occupied by Christian rulers which gives it a unique blending of architecture. It was then forgot about for nearly 500 years before being "discovered" and restorations started.
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| The gardens |
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| Oooh so artistic |
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| The view from the guard tower...I'm a sucker for cityscapes! |
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| Bell tower |
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| Royal complex – the focal point of the castle grounds |
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| Entire walls were covered in this intricate detail....just amazing |
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| The level of details were just insane |
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| I want this knocker on my door |
And that wraps up Spain!
Oh and for anybody who owns an airline who is reading this
(haha), if you put touchscreen tv’s in the headrest of the seats BY THE BEARD OF
ZEUS DO NOT INCLUDE CHILDRENS GAMES WHERE THE OBJECT OF THE GAME IS TO SEE HOW
MANY TIMES YOU CAN TAP THE SCREEN IN 10 SECONDS. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Love,
Shawn
Portugal!
Ahhh the Algarve region of Portugal - amazing beaches,
delicious seafood and great golf courses.
I headed to Albufeira (just east of Lagos) from Granada on a monster of
a travel day, to spend 2 weeks relaxing with my parents, eating my mom’s home cooking and pretending to laugh at my dad’s jokes. They backpacked Europe sometime ago (the
1800’s I believe) and have always wanted to go back to see Portugal. And since their favourite son (eat it Ry)
happened to be in Portugal, they made the flight over. Having not seen my parents outside of the
occasional Skype session in 5 months I was looking forward to this leg of my
trip. There wasn't much sight seeing to
be had, so we just enjoyed being immersed in the Portuguese culture.
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| My amazing parents....always giving and never taking |
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| View from the hotel room...a nice change of pace from hostel life |
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| Is anybody else seeing the size of those prawns? Or the mussels? I swear I saw a group of prawns carrying off a small child. |
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| My dad doing what he does best....when you find out what that is let me know |
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| Get a room |
We took a day trip at one point to Silvas to see some Moorish architecture
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| Moorish castle |
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| Random street cat...I didn't even realize her/his collar matched the colours in the background |
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| Any man who uses a piece of paper as a shield is worthy of a pic |
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| Inside the castle |
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| Some art festival was going on at the time we were there...hence the painted elephants and bears |
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| My dad and I on top of Mount Foia, the highest point in the Algarve region of Portugal |
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| Morning glory |
Ya I know, I didn't go to Lisbon or Lagos....but at this point in the trip I just wanted to hang with my parents for a few weeks and turn off the backpacker. But not for too long, as from Portugal I flew to Munich for Oktoberfest! Stay tuned!
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